Christian instrumental in Pride win over the Jets

Northern Pride may have looked at the Hostplus Cup draw and thought not Ipswich first round... the Pride have only won once at North Ipswich Reserve in 11 attempts with a draw chucked in there too.

But, for Pride, 2022 has kicked off with a comprehensive win over the Ipswich Jets; a great start for the Cairns-based outfit. 

It was a win that was achieved through a great defensive effort that kept the Jets scoreless until the last ten minutes.

Former Jet Julian Christian came back to the North Ipswich Reserve with a try in the fifth minute after a solid run from Pride front rower Paea Pua. Pride jumped out through hooker Jayden Hodges and found Christian looming large after another run and off-load from Pua.

The Pride’s defence kept the Jets rucking it out and kicking from their own territory and led to attacking defence and forcing a repeat set. The Jets defence couldn’t hold the Pride out and on the left Bernard Lewis had his seventh try in game number seventeen in Cup.

Will Partridge missed with his conversion out wide but the Pride had the start they were craving at 10-0 after 17 minutes.

On the back of a penalty in the 20th minute, the Jets were able to get good ball in attacking position for the first time but the attack didn’t yield any points as the Pride turned the Jets away.

The blue and orange wall of defence kept turning the Jets down dark alleys with no way out.

An enterprising run and offload from Jets captain Nat Neale saw the Jets move upfield and again look to attack the Pride, but the last pass found the grass and the Jets couldn’t crack the Pride.

It was Christian again that had an impact on the game, returning the ball into the Jets half which sparked four players sitting out for 10 minutes.

Joseph Ratuvakacerivalu and Bernard Lewis from Pride, and Gerome Burns with Denzel Burns from the Jets, earned a cool down after the two teams came together on half way.

The Pride took their 10-0 lead to half-time.